Thursday, September 29, 2011

I recently saw a tutorial at Empire of Ghosts on making urban baricades from sprue and had to give it a go. The barricades use a closed loop of sprue for the base and then you glue plasticard and junk around them to flesh them out. I built three like this before I got annoyed with how long it took to glue each bit on and how fiddly it was with the plasticard.

I then decided to make some using a similar technique but basing them on pieces of foamcore. I cut the foamcore into the barricade cross section shaped and then cut plasticard to length and glued it to the sides. Ah. Much faster. I had to use 3-4 of the cross sections per piece to stop warping though. They took me about half the time to make.

I then based them with 2 shades of brown spray paint and painted them up like my other recent terrain.

I tried out some different weathering techniques (sort of, not really, just different colors) and just had some fun varying the amount of weathering on each bit. I am pleased with how they turned out as I built and painted them while working on other pieces at the same time. Much cheaper than $30 barricades from an unnamed conglomerate!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I finished painting the terrain piece built from a pencil holder yesterday. I found the metal pencil holder at the dollar store and decided to use some tins, plasticard, and balsa to turn it into a functional terrain piece. I think the end effect is alright. You can see an unpainted picture here. I spent a fair bit of time detailing the rivets and things and painting the different areas. I am quite pleased with how the grey and green painted metal turned out and with the weathering on the posters. I am not 100% satisfied with the vents at the top that connect to nothing or the sandbag painting. The stairs are also too narrow to hold some models as they go up. It does all look suitably grimy though.

I like how the weathered streaks look and the rust around the grey plates. I used a wash with Gryphon Sepia and then lined it with some Tamiya Clear Orange. I think the orange makes the streaks pop a lot more.

This time I tried to make the paint look more chipped in places by using bigger splotches of dark brown and then highlighting the rust with a sponge mostly within that area. You can see this on the picture below.

You can also see here the little system I am using to create walkways. Each piece has these little 2" wide sections of barriers that neatly hold the piece of balsa on the bottom of the walkways. This helps to hold them stable and stops the walkways from always wobbling and tipping. It seems to work pretty well

A quick shout out to the newest members: Malachy and Naftka. A special thanks to Naftka as Rust and the city is now on the Faeit 212 Blog Exchange! Check it out here http://natfka.blogspot.com/. Thanks also to Ron at From the Warp for including me in blogroll number 3 (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/). Thanks for the support everyone.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Someone on the deathsquads forum asked for a tutorial on how I did the weathering effects on my last project so I thought I would do a quick tutorial with this quick terrain project. Last entry I showed some work in progress shots of this urban hill. This tutorial does not give Golden Demon level weathering, it merely provides a quick way for me to weather my terrain. In total, I spent only about 30 minutes building this piece and then probably 1.5 detailing and painting it.

The main structure is a dollar store basket decorated with some cardboard and granny grating. To get to the first stage I based the whole piece with a textured brown spray paint. I then heavily drybrushed a dark green, then decided it looked ugly, so I drybrushed a minty green over top (leaving some streaks too). On the top I drybrushed a little silver and painted some panels yellow for hazard stripes. I stuck on a few posters I found around the internet and some numbers from the dollar store. This brought it to this stage:

After this step I finished the hazard stripes and painted over the posters with glue and then gryphon sepia.

To do most of the rest of the painting I used a sponge brush. I rip the brush apart a little so there is no sharp edge texture. I first used Americana Dark Chocolate. I put some paint on the brush and sponge it on the cardboard until there is only a very little coming off.

I then sponged the dark chocolate all over the top and sides of the piece.

I then did the same with Americana Raw Umber. Raw Umber is a nice, dark brown. I used it in some places a little more heavily to create a chipped paint look as well.

Next I sponged GW Vomit Brown over the areas I previously colored brown and wanted to look extra rusty. The Vomit Brown creates a perfect rust color (in my opinion). Be careful not to overdo it though (if you ever do too much, just go back with your darker browns to break up the texture a bit). I tried to focus on areas that would naturally rust and made large blobs of rust in interesting places. I did a few little dots of each color over the posters to simulate wear as well.

After the vomit brown I lightly sponged GW Boltgun Metal (another great color) over different parts of the piece to simulate more recent chips and metal showing through.

Finally, I added in streaks of grime and oil and dirt using GW Devlan Mud wash. I made drips from the circles, drips from rust, pools in some of the holes, lines from the top, streaks on posters, etc. using a regular brush. Use your imagination and think of wear liquids might flow. Try to make the lines vertical and somewhat neat though.

These streaks are a little ugly and rough...

Now you are done! I will probably go back and add a few more streaks in Gryphon Sepia and some blazing rusty streaks using Tamiya Clear Orange. At this point it looks suitably battered.

The sponge painting goes really fast. I didn't even clean the sponge between brushings. Wash at the end though so your sponge lasts longer. The sponges with the little handles help to reach difficult spots and keep your hands clean.

Here are some pictures of the finished product:

This is how it looked before painting.

Hope this helps! Post any questions here and I will be more than happy to answer them. Also, welcome to my newest follower, Sultansean, the first victim of my Death Orks of Krieg!

Friday, September 23, 2011

When I was designing my game board I realized that I wanted lots of elevation in an urban environment, but still wanted the board to be easy to store. I have seen different elevation pieces around the web. The general idea is that when the board is complete I will have a large selection of 1.5" and 3" high sections to make a more complex environment with recessed roads and lots of overhead walkways and bridges.

At the dollar store I found a basket of about the right shape and decided to turn it into a quick urban hill. I took the basket and glued cardboard along the inside, cut up some card for the top, and glued on some granny grating and coffee stir sticks for variety. I then sprayed it with two shades of brown and drybrushed a base coat of silver on the top and a minty green on the sides (I need more color in the terrain I think). I've also added a few details such as posters and the start of some hazard stripes.

Here you can see how it can be used to add elevation. You can also see the unpainted basket!

I am trying to do this piece fairly quickly. I will be away for a few days, but should have it finished early next week. Just lots of weathering and some detail work left to do.

As a final note, welcome to my first two followers, TW and Messanger of Death!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Well, the twin tanks are finally finished. Only took 8 months... Hopefully the next project will be completed much sooner.

Death Orks of Krieg for scale.

I finished the twin tanks project tonight. Still a few things a may touch up in the future, but I think it is looking alright just now. I am trying to balance creating a quality product with spending too much time detailing and not finishing anything!

I am pleased with how the weathering turned out. I should have been a little more careful with the direction of the streaks.

The streaks are done with Gryphon Sepia and Tamiya Clear Orange.

I think there is a bit too much rusty brown on this piece. More colors on the next one.

A top view shot.

Hopefully the next piece will go by a bit quicker. I have two other pieces primed and ready for painting. I just need to get started on the painting and spongeing and then I will have them up on here.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The storage tank facility is about half painted now. I need to add more corrosion and rust and weathering to the rusty sections. It is a little glossy right now and needs a spray of dull coat (any recommendations?). The main tanks will be getting a sponge stippling of two or three more browns to improve the rusting, as will the other corroded areas. The gravel will get a dry brush and wash in grey. Then I will add in more runs and corrosion. The ones so far are done with Gryphonne Sepia and Tamiya Clear Orange (the bright orange streaks).

I painted the structure by first spraying it with two colors of brown spray paint. I then brushed an egg white latex paint over the tanks, drybrushing in some places, and covering the whole thing in others (I liked both and couldn't decide).

The signs come from an attachment someone posted on a thread I had created. Not sure who the original creators are. I just printed them out, glued them on, and weathered them with Gryphonne Sepia and Tamiya Clear Orange.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Just a quick little update. I've been working on the boards a bit more. They are on hold now until I get some more granny grating to complete some sections. Not sure at the moment if I should hold off and paint all four sections together or do them two at a time.

In the meantime I have been working on a little bit of terrain.

The first piece was a WIP from months ago. I didn't get a chance to paint it as I was gone for 6 months. I touched it up a bit, glued the pieces down better, and added some more cover. It is now ready to paint!

I tried to build it with a bit of cover and some access to different levels to make it playable.

My favourite part is the strange broken tubes with electrical wires and things coming out of them.

The second piece is based on a $3 metal pencil holder I found at the dollar store. I got a little carried away adding details to a simple piece, but I am hoping it is quite playable. The big tank is a dental floss container, the pipes are copper connectors, the blue containers are mint containers. The plasticard is from a beware of dog sign. The balsa warped a lot on the main structure, so it looks a bit ramshackle. I'm planning to paint these mostly in a rust color scheme with some tanks and things with different colors for a little contrast.

Tonight I am planning to give them a basecoat of textured matte brown spray paint. Then hopefully I can get them painted up and completed around mid week.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

I have a number of ongoing projects that will feature heavily in this blog. I am terrible for frequently starting a project and then getting distracted before it is finished. I really love converting and building things, so many projects get only a bit beyond this stage. Hopefully this blog will help me to stay on track and finish a few of these ongoing projects.

Death Orks of Krieg
This is a small squad I have been building for deathsquads (a great 40k skirmish game similar to Necromunda and Mordheim, visit http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/ for more info and free rules!). They are orks who have been raised by the Death Korps of Krieg as an experimental commando force. They are now renegade. This force is mostly built. It just needs some finishing details and a whole lot of paint. Here are a few pictures of what I have so far.

First two finished Death Orks.

A shot of most of the gang. Lots of work still to complete.

Imperial Renegades
Another squad for deathsquads. These are humans who have been corrupted by chaos and have rebelled against the Imperium. They are made from a variety of Cadian, Catachan, Skaven, Necron, and other bits. This squad is partially assembled and converted. I have not fully decided on a color scheme yet, as the one I tried was unsatisfactory.

Some of the Imperial Renegades.

Death Guard
As I have moved to Vancouver I have discovered that I will need to convert people to deathsquads through more popular games. So I am building a small Death Guard force. Death Guard are a traitorous space marine legion devoted to Nurgle. I have built a few models and converted them from the Chaos Space Marine box set. I am waiting for some conversion sets from forgeworld to arrive and some bits I have ordered so that I can begin seriously working on this project. My goal is to have a 1750 point force painted and ready to game for the November 24th Foodhammer tournament in Vancouver. Hopefully this blog will include lots of Death Guard fun over the next few months. Here are two pictures of the first two models I have built.

A bit of a poor picture. I am planning to mix forge world sets and greenstuff conversions.

Here you can see the greenstuffed bellies. I "weathered" the legs, arms, and weapons to fit in a bit better. I've also tried to create a flayed skin look on some of the shoulder pads using greenstuff.

Terrain
I am hoping to complete my board soon and to start adding lots of modular terrain to it. I want to keep everything compact for storage but to still have plenty of gaming options on it. I have lots of half complete projects that I need to finish...

Warriors of Chaos
I have a moderately effective 2,000 point Warriors of Chaos army. This army is partially painted. I keep changing my mind on things and taking things apart to change them. I will sit down and try to get them to a good level of completion soon though...

Welcome to the blog. This blog will track my progress through various terrain and hobby projects.

First up, I am planning to make a small terrain board. It will be modular with 4 2'x2' boards. The boards are 3/4" masonite. I want the board to be reversible (twice the gaming space with the same amount of storage space). One side will be a ruined city; flagstones, craters, canal. The other side will be a metal tech style. It will work for Necromunda, the inside of a factory, inside of a space hulk, future city, etc.

I have created a small test piece to try out a few different textures and painting techniques for this side.

The first image shows the materials I used. Base is 1/8" hardboard. Left to right the materials are drywall tape, cardboard from space marines, and darche.

The second image shows the test piece painted. I first sprayed it with a textured rust brown paint. On the top half I drybrushed on boltgun metal. The lower half I lightly drybrushed Americana Raw Umber. I painted the hazard stripes using vomit brown, golden yellow, black, and some masking tape. I then used a sponge to lightly sponge on layers on raw umber, bestial brown, and vomit brown. I did a small amount of sponging with boltgun metal as well, to show wear.

I'm not sure which paint scheme I like best. I like how old and decrepit the lower side without the drybrushed metal looks. It has the uniform look of corroded iron i-beams. I like how the drybrushed metal shows that this is a metal surface. Not sure yet which I will use. Definitely going back and forth on it.

Next I need to decide on the layout for the board and start cutting and gluing on the various textures.